Thursday, September 11, 2008

Montana

Christopher and I just got back from a spur of the moment trip to Montana. His sister Brittany and her husband Korry and two kids live in Great Falls. We had a great time and it was just the R&R Christopher needed! We just hung out mostly played a lot of Wii, Xbox, Brittany and I kicked the guys butts at Pictionary three times, went bowling for my first time ever, went to the Buffalo Jump, saw a movie and played with the kids. It was a really great vacation. I really enjoyed getting to hangout with Christopher's family. Brittany is the only one that lives anywhere near us so it was fun to just hop in the car and drive over. Hopefully it won't be the only time we make it over before the Air Force takes them away! (Note: sadly I didn't get a single picture of our totally awesome brother in law Korry :( He had to work while we went on our outings so I somehow managed to not get a single pic of him.) Anyway, thanks for hosting us guys we had a lot of fun! On the way home we stopped at a ghost town and ate at the Cracker Barrel. I had heard a lot about the Cracker Barrel from friends from the south but had never been because we don't have them up here. I was really excited and we went all out so I could have the full experience. 
We had so much fun just driving, being silly together and laughing. Thanks to Christopher's job schedule we don't see much of each other and are very stressed most of the time so it was awesome to just hang out be relaxed and have fun. 
Here are some pics from our trip.

Brittany and Kiley (4)  having pizza at the "bowling allen" as Brendan (2) called it.

Brendan and Kiley both beat me at bowling. Though I think the bumpers may have had something to do with it! I wanted bumpers but I guess they're only for little kids :) I bowled a 44 which basically means I had consistent gutter balls and occasionally hit some pins :) It was really fun even though I was terrible!

Christopher giving me bowling 101. 
(Note the red bowling ball. I'm pretty sure this ball was way too heavy but red is my signature color so I had to have it.)

My first pair of bowling shoes. Beautiful aren't they?

Oops. Oh well, I'm not fixing it now.

At the Buffalo jump.  This jump was used between 900 BC and 500 BC! Long before there were horses for the "First People" to ride this was the method of killing buffalo that was used. It's hard to see but the edge of the cliff where the buffalo herd would fall off is just behind those grassy bits where the photo gets blurry. The jump ranged from 25 to 75 feet down. Once the buffalo were dead at the bottom they would be butchered and every bit would be used except most of the bones. It's an interesting story how they lured the buffalo toward the jump and then got them to stampede off the cliff but it's too long to explain here. I was hoping there would be blood stains and bones still there but no such luck. Probably all for the best I guess that would have been a bit graphic for two little kids anyway.

A taxidermied buffalo. He was huge and the guide said he was actually a small one.

Inside a teepee at the interpretive center. Christopher looks right at home eh?

That hill is the Buffalo Jump. This is the best picture I got but if you look closely you can see a faint dark line along the tope edge of the hill. That is the rocky cliff (about a mile long and 25 to 75 ft high) that makes up the buffalo jump. 

Brittany and Christopher boxing on the Wii. This is a hilarious sight to watch in person.

Holly their sweet and adorable Sheltie. I fell completely in love with her. 

Brendan wearing Korry's Air Force blues uniform hat. What a cutie!

Enjoying some golden evening sun in a rocker at the Cracker Barrel.

I wanted to have the full Cracker Barrel experience so we played some checkers even though we were starving and couldn't wait to eat something.
Garnet Ghost Town
We took a very long detour to see Garnet my first ever ghost town. Garnet was a mining town of about 1000 people founded in 1895. By 1917 it was completely abandoned. It saw a brief revival from 1932 to about the mid 1940's when it was abandoned again and remained that way to this day.  

This bellows was left in the abandoned blacksmith's shop. It was huge! Taller than me and wider than my arms can reach. Can you imagine how hot that fire would've been?! The entire ceiling in the shop was blackened from the smoke and heat. 

Can you guess what this is? It was all that you had to go in if you were waiting up the road for the stage coach to pick you up at the station. (The station being a tiny log cabin.) Nice huh? I think I would've just as soon held it...

Christopher prospecting for gold. 

The Davis pretending to be the "Gray ghost of Garnet". This is the third floor of the hotel in town. By far the fanciest building it had fancy upholstered furniture, stained glass windows, wallpaper and ornate wood carved railings. The third floor was very plain and all the walls had been torn down but that was where the poor minors got to stay until they had built their houses. Well that's about it. We stayed so long in Garnet that by the time we finally got home to Portland it was 3 AM!

4 comments:

Tara said...

Great post! So fun and informative and fuuny! I mostly like when you used the huge bowling ball because it was red, your signature color. Which is true, and I would expect nothing less. :) So Cracker Barrel huh? I have been there a time or two because everyone here raves about it...I am pretty sure it's not my favorite restaurant...but it's so southern-y, how could you not go??

Marta said...

What a fun trip! So glad you and Chris got some good quality time together and with his family! I wanna go to that ghost town, it looks awesome!

Jen said...

Sounds like a lot of fun times! Seriously? Your first time bowling? What kind of friend am I? Please tell me you've at least been ice skating before! JK :)

Robby and Lynsey said...

We had so much fun with you guys last night! Thanks for coming over and hanging out. We look forward to more hanging out before this baby comes! Promise! ;)